Originally Posted by
tom cotter
Wasn't Gruskin in a crosswalk when he was hit by a wrong way delivery cyclist? So, what BS?
He was jaywalking in the middle of the block, according to reports.
Originally Posted by
tom cotter
As for jaywalkers, aren't most of the cyclist involved wrong way cyclist?
I doubt it. Who knows what the percentage is. All I know is you definitely don't have to be going the wrong way to plow into a jaywalker, as they frequently step into the street in front of bicyclists, for whatever reason. Go ride around the city center some time, and you'll find that jaywalking pedestrians are a common problem for lawful bicyclists. If you're not on alert for this at all times, a collision will occur.
Also consider that whatever numbers do exist on this, and I'm not recalling any at present, will suffer from the fact that collisions caused by the peds, in which neither the ped or cyclist is badly injured, are highly unlikely to be reported. Who would report it? The at-fault pedestrian? No, these incidents just find their way into the comment sections of news sites and such, more horror stories of the terror on the streets caused by bicyclists! Scary bicyclists ...
Originally Posted by
tom cotter
Jaywalking is very common in big cities.
That's quite an understatement. Jaywalking is the norm in big cities. Almost everybody jaywalks, any chance they get. Typically the entire crowd waiting to cross a street -- 100% -- will jaywalk. Almost all of them will have their heads down. Sit and watch it some time. Undoubtedly there is heavy peer pressure at work there. Someone parks in the middle of the block, how often do they walk to an intersection to cross? Lawful walkers are extremely rare.
Would the world be a better place if nobody jaywalked, always crossed with the light in crosswalks? Bicyclists would be safer, that's about it. Jaywalking serves an important function, as does much scofflaw bicycling.
Originally Posted by
tom cotter
I'm not saying that's makes the ped right, just that peds are looking only one way for traffic when hit on the blind side by someone who is not suppose to be there. In those situations how can a cyclist blame the ped? Shouldn't it be shared blame?
Absolutely. Shared blame. The Gruskin Foundation doesn't seem to agree.
Originally Posted by
tom cotter
I'm not saying that peds aren't sometimes part of the problem, it seems you are discounting cylist ownership of their share of the problem.
Clearly there is shared blame in such an incident. All I ask is for the Gruskin Foundation and like-minded scapegoaters to acknowledge that simple fact. If they actually cared about pedestrian safety, instead of some sad revenge fantasy, they would tell the truth about how the actions of pedestrians like Gruskin lead directly to collisions with bicyclists, cars and other fast-moving objects. Instead, it's everybody else's fault. Sue sue sue. Blame blame blame.
And maybe everybody will remember that the alleged epidemic of bike-ped collisions is incredibly tiny compared to the epidemic of car-ped collisions, or car-bike collisions for that matter.